(1)
Ten years ago, I traveled alone to Bangkok, Thailand. In June, Bangkok is like a mass of damp mucus, dense with the hot
fragrance , and floating with dark desires.
On a foggy night, I walked out of the hotel and turned into a dark alley. Under the dim street lights, the hawker set out three baskets.
When I got closer, I saw that the brown-yellow ones were fried locusts, the dark ones were roasted centipedes, and there was a group of white and indescribable
soft bugs. There were three people squatting next to the basket, chewing the bugs in their hands like three monkeys, and
green .
I stood back for a while, not daring to look at each other, and hurriedly recruited a three-wheeled motorcycle. I actually wanted to go to a downtown area called Suriwang
. Motorcycles were scurrying around in the alleys, and in some places the incandescent lights
were outrageously bright. The original ten-minute drive seemed like a thirty-minute drive. I was a little sullen and shouted "Suliwang,
Suliwang!" The motorcycle driver didn't turn his head, leaving me with a mess of wet, unkempt black hair.
Crossing the river of the underworld, Suriwang's coquettish colors seem to have changed the world. The hustle and bustle is mixed with
the smell of sweat, perfume and crocodile skin; the dark red, dark green and dark blue in the bar are full of endless lust. There are many women scratching their heads and making poses
on the side of the road, I don't know if they are human or demon. Suddenly, a woman (demon) grabbed my hand and put it in front of her chest, and I felt
an indescribable piece of softness, like a white worm under a street lamp...
(2)
In 2013, a The film evoked my psychedelic memories of Bangkok, Thailand, and the scenes from ten years ago were instantly vivid in my mind. May
23, Nicolas Winding Refn's new work "Only God
Can Forgive"
(Only God Forgives) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and competed in the main unit. This is a film made by a Danish
director with two British and American acting stars Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas in
Bangkok, Thailand. Because the film expresses or implies considerable violence, pornography, Oedipus, incest, patricide, and even
corpse love, it has caused great controversy after its premiere. Many audiences left the stage during the premiere,
but many audiences applauded warmly after the premiere and were reluctant to leave for a long time.
After watching "Only God Forgives", my first impression was how similar the colors, light, and even the smell of the images were to
the night I experienced in Bangkok ten years ago! The flickering light, the sinister dark red, dark green and
dark blue, as well as the expressionless Thai people who are full of desire and hunger, all exude a mixed fragrance and
stench in the night. damp. Just as Baudelaire used poetry and Brasset used the camera lens to describe the night in Paris, blooming a
sinister but gorgeous "flower of evil", Refn also used the film lens to capture the mysterious night of Bangkok.
Only night can inspire this magical ghost. In the daytime, there is no weirdness, only the orderly
operation and the mechanical time planning. Like working people around the world who contribute to capitalism, Thais don
suits or work clothes and work their hard-earned money in multinational corporations. But when night falls, they'll shed their heavy coats, savour insects under
streetlights , or wave their stakes under the muay thai ring. The company's foreign executives or foreign travelers
spend a lot of money and indulge in the bar and dance hall. People on the edge of the city who fell asleep during the day will also be reborn under the
power , wandering the streets and alleys. Bangkok nights are sinful, but alive. one will only
A city that accumulates without indulging in consumption is distorted and strained. In the excessive rational planning and mechanical life, human beings
will lose the intimacy of communication with the original wild power. "Only God Can Forgive" presents the magical and wild
side , which is in harmony
with the peaceful and
divine nature of the famous Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (representative work "Love Syndrome"). Thailand, together with small and fresh Thailand such as "Little Lover" and "Love in Siam", constitute an exquisite
polyhedron.
In my opinion, "Only God Forgives" is not a simple B-class cult movie that attracts attention with erotic violence, but
a serious discussion of man and god, taboo and transgression, pornography and The relationship between eroticism and punishment
. The title of the film is dedicated to Alejandro Jodorowsky, the famous
director . In "Holy Mountain", "Holy Blood" or "The Mole",
Jodorowsky's unrestrained narrative style, eclectic camera scheduling, and large-scale thick color blocks
make people deeply experience the charm of camera language. Refn has always regarded Jodorowsky as his spiritual mentor, and in form,
he made "Only God Forgive" almost to the extreme. The composition of each shot, the use of light, rhythm, and the connection between shots
are all very ingenious. Some important symbols such as the hand (male organ) and the door (uterus) also
echo each other and have rich meanings. For example, the second appearance of the film's protagonist Julian (Gosling) is a
tryst in his room with his Thai girlfriend Mai, when someone knocks on the door to tell Julian's brother's death. The five-minute scene had no dialogue
, and only used less than thirty shots in total (compared to an average of more than twenty shots per minute for Hollywood blockbusters),
The three themes mentioned above are highlighted. When Julian stretched his hand to the door (a taboo metaphor), the god of punishment
descended and violently cut off Julian's hand. Of course, all this was an illusion, and at this time, Mai also
climaxed through masturbation. Sex, death, taboo and punishment are connected to each other, one after another, the real and the unreal are mixed together, the beauty and the fear
coexist!
Refn leaned towards a documentary style when he debuted, and his Pusher trilogy was
influenced , including the use of natural light as much as possible, actor improvisations, camcorders, etc.
But in "Desperados," which won him best director at Cannes in 2011 , he incorporated the somber images of Danish films into Jodorowsky's magical visual
style, while in "Forgive God," the improvisational roughness is almost Gone, replaced by a further
visual feast. Audiences accustomed to fast-paced Hollywood movies may be stunned by the jumps in plot, the scarcity of lines,
the slow use of mirrors, and the over-description of violence and eroticism. But stop and think for a moment: Are tightly closed stories,
fast and coherent cuts, clean images, good versus evil, and stable family and social relationships (or a reunion
finale), are they inadvertently imposed on us? What about violence that becomes a "norm"?
(3)
In Jodorowsky’s films, conservative and hypocritical religions are ridiculed to perfection, while pornography, for the
director , is one of the ways for human beings to get rid of their heavy social shackles and hypocrisy and return to their true state. . Refn
inherits the style and themes of a spiritual guide, but it's a critical step beyond the thunderclap. As the title Only God
Forgives suggests, there is always a God who decides whether to punish or forgive. Christianity assumes
Human beings are born with original sin, and Buddhism has the theory of six realms of reincarnation, hell, and evil spirits. Neither of them can deny the reality of death, but they
extradite death to a transcendent system of rebirth/resurrection in the next life. The instinctive fear of death makes people ask God for forgiveness.
The original instinct and vigorous vitality are bound by various frameworks under the boundless care of God's mana. If
Jodorowsky jumps out of this frame, Refn still affirms the need for a frame in the film.
Just as Jocasta hangs herself in shame, and Oedipus blinds herself in grief, so at the end of the film,
Julian also asks God (the father) to cut off his own hands. The inner sense of guilt and the final submission to the power have weakened the resistance of the
film a lot, and even almost returned to the category of the main theme. Refn is not Jodorowsky after all.
In the harsh economic and ideological environment of the global film market, perhaps
a film as free as Jodorowsky will never be seen again.
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